Not-for-profit sustainable travel coalition, Travalyst, has rolled out a model to help measure the environmental impact of a flight.
The Travel Impact Model (TIM), developed by Google, estimates lifecycle emissions for flights at the individual passenger level and has been scaled through the Travalyst coalition.
The model takes a number of factors into account, including flight origin and destination, aircraft type, cabin class and seat configuration, load factors and average aircraft utilisation.
Platforms using the TIM show flight emissions information at the time of booking, so bookers can choose a flight with a lower-than-typical CO2e footprint.
For example, according to the latest date, the typical CO2e per passenger on a one-way economy flight from London Gatwick to New York JFK is 466 kg.
Booking platforms using the TIM highlight an option that is 12% (57 kg) lower than the typical CO2e for that route.
The difference in CO2e is approximately equivalent to a passenger’s flight from Gatwick to Dublin (typically 56 kg CO2e).
Sally Davey, CEO of Travalyst, said: “Flight emissions estimates have been scaled through our coalition, resulting in this information appearing in over 65 billion flight searches globally.
“Corporate travel is one of the business world’s greatest contributors to carbon emissions and businesses are under immense pressure to lower their scope three emissions. This all starts with access to clear, consistent and credible information for measurement – if you can’t measure it, you can’t change it.”
Sebnem Erzan, Global Head of Travel Sustainability Partnerships at Google, added: “We want to help people better understand the environmental impact of their travel choices – no matter where they search for their next flight.
“Through our efforts with Travalyst and the Travel Impact Model, information on flight emissions is now more accessible and actionable for people around the world.”
Travalyst, founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, aggregates data from a number of its coalition partners which include Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Google, Sabre, Skyscanner, Travelport, and Trip.Biz (the corporate arm of Trip.com Group).
The data was collected between the launch date of the TIM by Google in October 2021 through April 2024. In this time the TIM was scaled through the Travalyst coalition and integrated into partner platforms.
